The Green Book was a travel guide listing hotels, restaurants, gas stations, barber shops, and other establishments across the country where Black travelers would not get hassled, turned away, or be put in dangerous situations. While many associate the book with the South, the Green Books of the Jim Crow-era featured hundreds of New England businesses – many now long gone or surviving without recognition of their place in history.
Using newspaper archives, government property records, historic map collections, and other sources, the Globe mapped nearly every New England location mentioned in the Green Book: Approximately 350 businesses in all. We consider the project a living document: As we learn more about businesses we could not initially verify, we’re adding them to our database.
The mapping project was paired with a feature in which Globe reporters fanned out across the region to tell compelling backstories from businesses that served Black travelers: Former patrons recalled the community that sprung up around a Vermont hotel in the 1940s. Reporters traced the history of a mainstay Roxbury restaurant that survives to this day. And a letter from W.E.B. Du Bois illuminated the lengths to which Black travelers had to go to ensure a comfortable and safe night’s stay.
